Hell
by Captain Jasmine Vanity
Summary: AnakinXOC - She's trying desperately to hold onto everything she's worked so hard to get. But her grasp is slipping.   Rated for torture in later chapters.  Alternate ending possible?
1. Chapter 1

Anakin lazily strokes the smooth curve of Skye's back, and she shivers in the early morning chill. He plants a light kiss on the swell of her breast, and she turns over and kisses him deeply on the lips. For a moment, he thinks about performing a repeat of last night, but then remembers his duties, and settles for a few heated kisses instead. Finally, they break apart, and Anakin lets her rest her head on his bare chest. Her legs are tangled up in the blankets, and he lets his eyes take in her still form appreciatively. His nude lower half is covered by the thin sheet they had slept under once they had finally fallen asleep last night, and their clothes are still scattered where they fell. He brushes a few strands of hair away from Skye's face, and she yawns and stretches. "I love you," she whispers in his ear, before slipping out of bed, and walking toward the window. She stands there, her naked form illuminated beautifully in the sunlight for several breathtaking minutes. But then, abruptly, the sun is gone, masked by clouds, and Skye moves away. She quietly puts on her underclothes, pants, and tunic, and starts toward the kitchen. On her way, she passes in front of the calendar on the holoscreen by the table, but then, she freezes. She stares at the date, and Anakin is reminded of the time she put the dot on the calendar. Two cycles ago. He still has no idea what it means, but apparently Skye does. He starts to dress, all the while consciously meditating on what the spot could possibly mean. "Anakin..." he is stopped in his meanderings by the seriousness of her tone. "Skye...?" she looks at the calendar again, and curses violently. "Nothing. I'm going to the med bay." He crosses the apartment swiftly, and wraps his arms around her waist from behind. "Skye, what's wrong? Do you feel sick?" her face twists, and she pulls away from his embrace. "I need... to go see a friend. I probably won't be long, and I'll come back here when I'm done. Will you be here?" he shakes his head, still fearing for Skye's health and safety, and answers with only half of his attention, "I have to see the council about what happened on my last mission, but I should be done fairly soon as well." She nods, throws her cloak over her shoulders, and is gone before Anakin can kiss her goodbye.


	2. Chapter 2

Skye speaks to no one as she hurries to the Medical bay. Her friend – Barriss- has no idea that she's coming, and Skye hopes that she isn't too busy already. Barriss has been her best friend since her first day as a Padawan learner in the temple, and Skye hopes that Barriss will help her. She keys in a clone access code –nobody can know she was there- and slips into the bay unnoticed. It's a simple task to locate Barriss, which she does with a flick of the force to probe the minds of others around her, but it's another matter entirely to get to her. Of course, Barriss is in the farthest position she can get from the entrance without actually leaving the room, so Skye has to use all of her senses –including the force- to avoid crashing into anyone. She navigates through the overpopulated area smoothly, and is close enough to hear her friends comforting voice before she finally comes to a stop. Barriss is muttering, whether to herself or to the patient, Skye does not know. Either way, she will have to wait until Barriss is finished, because Barriss isn't the type to leave anything unfinished, for however long it may be. She senses a surge in the force, and the panicky, stressed expression the patient has flees their face, replaced by a calm mask, courtesy of the force. Barriss lays the man back on the examination table, and inserts a finger in his wound, probing gently with both her fingers and the force. He moans, feeling the pain as Barriss moves her hands, and Skye comes to her friend's aide by moving to the end of the table, and putting her hands on his temples. She smothers his feelings in the peace of the force, and, out of habit, immerses herself in the flow as well. She watches, as if from great distance, as Barriss quickly cleanses the man's wound, a long, jagged cut, stretching from his left shoulder to his right hip, and puts a bacta patch on it. The wound isn't very serious, nor is it life-threatening, so Skye pulls herself away from the table, and her mind from the force. Barriss rinses her hands of blood and gore in a shallow bowl of water, and dries them on a white towel, watching her friend carefully. Barriss already knows something is going on with Skye and Anakin, but Skye has not told her everything, which, if she was right, she would. "Padawan Stryker... to what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?" Barriss has been promoted to Jedi Knight recently, and Skye is made forcefully aware of this fact by the lofty tone Barriss' voice takes on as she greets Skye. "Barriss..." she winces at the gravelly, almost frightened tone her voice has taken, and tries again, to no avail. "Barriss, I need... help. Do you have time for a private examination?" Barriss glances around the Med Bay, nods carefully at Skye, and then directs her to one of the examination rooms on the wall behind them. Barriss reaches up to punch in an access code that will admit her and a Jedi, but Skye catches her wrist before she can touch a single key. Barriss pulls her arm out of Skye's grip, and faces the Padawan with an unreadable expression. "What are you doing, Skye?" Skye lowers her hand, instantly apologetic, but Barriss doesn't reach back up to put in the string of numbers. "What's the matter, Skye?" Barriss places a gentle hand on Skye's shoulder, but Skye flinches away, as if stung. "I-nobody can know. That I was here, I mean. Not one. If someone were to find out-" Skye breaks off, shaking her head helplessly, the picture of defeat. Barriss removes her hand from the younger girl's shoulder, and turns to key in another code, this time, admitting her assistant – Durok Mael- and a Temple technician. Barriss ushers her in, checking surreptitiously behind them to ensure that nobody noticed their tense exchange, then shuts the door quickly, and locks it at a look from Skye. "Skye, _what_ is this all about? Are you in trouble?" Skye bites her lip, and shakes her head. "Not yet…" Barriss points her to an examination table in the centre of the room, and Skye eyes it warily before sitting down on the edge. "Routine examination, right?" Skye nods and Barriss opens a wall panel filled with instruments and med-packs. "Skye, can you give me a clue as to exactly _what _I'm looking for? It would make my job a whole lot easier." Skye glances at Barriss accusingly, and says quietly, "I thought that was your job," Barriss glares at her, and she murmurs reluctantly, "Just look for anything out of the ordinary." The examination is anything but quick, with Skye refusing to tell Barriss even where to look, and Barriss only half-focusing on what she's doing. But finally, its over, and the results come up on the wall opposite them. Barriss spends a few minutes quietly studying them, and Skye relaxes a bit, trying to calm herself down. She's just started feeling peaceful when Barriss frowns, and Skye's anxiety level shoots right back up. Barriss turns to her, and Skye grips the edge of the table so hard that her knuckles turn white almost instantly. "Skye, there's an unusual concentration of midi-chlorians around your core, and some of your chemical balances seem a bit off… I'm going to go out on a whim here, but, when was your last-" they're interrupted as something heavy hits the door of their room. Barriss rushes to the door, concerned for the safety of the patients, but Skye speaks quickly, and restrains her solely with words. "What if there's someone out there, attacking?" Barriss sees the wisdom of her thought, and moves instead to the heavy blackout curtain over the window. Pulling it aside, she watches in mute horror, as, the man she worked over earlier is dumped ungraciously off of his table and onto the floor by a wild flurry of motion. A man stands in the centre of a clear space, free of both patients and instruments, panting heavily. Barriss recognizes him as a clone, one of the troops that returned from fighting on Tel'Amino about 5 standard days ago. Two male orderlies rush to his sides, in an attempt to restrain him, but one is taken out by his flailing arms. The other, however, ducks and weaves his way through the resistance to jab a syringe into his neck, and straightens up just in time to catch the collapsing stormtrooper. Barriss looks as though she wants to go out and help, but remembers Skye at the last minute, and turns back to her friend. Skye, though she hasn't heard the full question, can guess easily enough what Barriss was going to ask, and replies not _quite_ calmly, "almost a full month ago." Barriss moves to her side, and, impulsively, hugs her friend. "Oh Skye…" Skye sits, stiff as a board, numbly staring over Barriss' shoulder. She doesn't trust herself to speak just yet, so she does the only thing she can. She gets up, and walks out, leaving Barriss to stare at a wall covered in the only evidence of her clear overstepping of the code.


	3. Chapter 3

Skye wades detachedly through the mess of scrambling nurses and healers, not feeling any touch, not registering anything, even when she is struck in the face by a waving arm. She mumbles a few apologies at random, but mostly just focuses on making her feet move themselves to the elevator. Then through the winding corridors of the temple. Then, finally, blessedly, through the door of Anakin's apartment. She sits at the kitchen table, staring torpidly out the window, not seeing anything, not feeling anything, not thinking anything. The holocron on the wall ticks vapidly, and Skye desperately wishes it would stop. Finally, she can't take it anymore, and she cracks. She picks up the nearest object –a knife- and hurls it at the holocron blindly, fueled by rage. Part of the Jedi code comes to mind –_there is no emotion, there is peace- _and she screams with rage at it –_shut up!- _and destroys the holocron, crushing parts of it in her bare hands. –_there is no passion, there is serenity- _and she picks up the biggest chunk of clock and heaves it out the window. A wordless scream erupts from her, and absently, in some distant part of her mind, she thanks the force that nobody is around the apartments to hear her losing control. Finally, her rage is spent, and all that is left is despair and bitterness. –_how could she have let herself go like that- _she looks up at the cabinets above her, and opens one of them, searching for her elixir. She swore she would never return to the bottle, yet, there she was, drowning her fears in Correllian ale. _–you're afraid_- _-shut up- -cant stop- -no no no nonono…- -how will you tell him- -stop it- -what if he doesn't love you anymore- -he wont, no he cant, no- -he'll turn you over to the council-_ she drains the bottle and reaches up to the cabinet for more. Anakin has plenty of alcohol saved for special occasions, and that suits her purposes perfectly. She finds a large bottle of lum –_my favorite_- and drains it quickly, then harvests all she can from the small cupboards –_which isn't much- _and sinks down the wall, ignoring the pain in her legs from sitting on broken glass, and finishes all the drinks, wallowing in sorrow and brokenness. Finally, as if the force –_you still believe? -_ takes pity on her, she passes out, steeped in alcohol, the remains of her despair-fueled binge scattered around her.


	4. Sorry, Guys!

HEY GUYS :D :D :D

I'm actually really, really sorry... I'm going away for two weeks, on a missions trip to South Africa. (FIRST, I GET TO GO TO ENGLAND...WOOHOO!)

I HAVE the next few chapters of this story (whatever story this is, I probably do) ready to upload, but since it takes time and I'm going to the airport in a few minutes and still frantically putting music on my Music thingy, I CAN'T put them up now... please, please, please forgive mee, and you'll have a few reward chapters up for your patience in about two weeks...

Goodbye, my loyal fans!

CJV


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